S. Korean women archers dominate Olympics for 36 years

Team Korea aims for a clean sweep of all five golds available in archery events in Paris

Nam Su-hyeon of the South Korean women's archery team, which achieved a 10th consecutive Olympic victory on Sunday, releases her arrow during the women's team archery final at the Les Invalides archery range in Paris, France, Sunday. (Yonhap)

Since the women’s archery team event was introduced at the Olympics in 1988, South Korean women have never failed to win gold. On Sunday in Paris, they demonstrated once again their dominance, winning the 10th consecutive gold.

The South Korean team, consisting of Lim Si-hyeon, Nam Su-hyeon and Jeon Hun-young, defeated China in a shoot-off to win 5-4 in the women's archery team final at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The match took place at Les Invalides in Paris on Sunday.

President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed his admiration for the national archery team members on his Facebook account Monday morning, saying he watched and cheered with bated breath until the final shoot-off.

"Although none of the three athletes had prior Olympic experience, they overcame the highly challenging Korean national team selection process and proved once again that being the best in Korea means being the best in the world."

Sunday’s victory means South Korea has won in the women’s team event every single time for 36 years now since it was officially added to the quadrennial sports event at the 1988 Seoul Games.

This record ties Korean archers with the US men's 400m medley relay swimming team for the most consecutive victories in a specific event by a single country, with both streaks spanning 36 years and still ongoing. The US men's 400m swimming team, which won from the 1984 Los Angeles Games to the 2020 Tokyo Games, hasn’t yet competed in Paris.

In the ongoing Olympics, Team Korea, composed of three male and female archers, aim for a clean sweep in the five archery events taking place, across team, mixed team and individual categories.

The Korean men’s team is to compete in preliminary rounds later Monday afternoon (local time), with the final scheduled to take place Tuesday morning. If they win, South Korea will achieve the feat of winning both the men's and women's team events at three consecutive Olympics.

Despite the impressive records, South Korea's global dominance in archery has faced significant challenges in recent years, making Sunday's achievement of the 10th straight women’s team gold even more impressive.

Asian countries, particularly China, have emerged as formidable competition, threatening to dethrone South Korea at even the smallest mistake. In both the first and second World Cup stages this year, South Korean women’s team had to settle for silver medals, falling behind China.

Also, South Korea has traditionally struggled in international archery competitions held in Europe, where unpredictable winds and frequent rain increase the uncertainty of outcomes.

In addition, the current team lacked extensive international competition experience. While Lim Si-hyeon won three gold medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games, she had no prior Olympic experience. Jeon Hun-young and Nam Su-hyeon had limited exposure to international competitions, including both the Olympics and Asian Games.

To overcome these variables, the team adopted a thorough preparation and merit-based approach.

The national team conducted special training sessions by the river and in a soccer stadium to prepare for wind and noise conditions. They also strengthened their mental fortitude through unique training sessions where they competed against an "emotionless" robot that only shot perfect 10s.

At the Jincheon National Training Center, they created a replica of the Les Invalides archery range and held two in-house "special matches" to simulate the competition environment. This meticulous preparation aimed to acclimate the archers to the conditions they would face in international competitions and enhance their ability to perform under pressure.

After clinching the gold medal, Lim Si-hyeon admitted that the high expectations from the public created a lot of pressure.

"We felt more pressured to deliver results instead of enjoying the game," Lim said. "However, I tried to maintain a mindset of enjoying the competition together with Hun-young and Su-hyeon, and it turned out to be positive."

With Day 3 of the Paris Games underway, South Korea has secured three golds so far, all in the weapon sports of shooting, fencing and archery.

By Shin Ji-hye(shinjh@heraldcorp.com)